Lombard trustees back 4-lane Illinois 53 plan

A decision by Lombard trustees to support a four-lane Illinois Highway 53 through the village has upset a citizens group trying to fight a state plan to expand the road.

Members of Neighbors Influencing Fifty-Three Improvements, or NIFTI,want to limit the widening of a two-lane stretch to three lanes. They contend that four lanes would be dangerous to area children and hurt property values.

But the Illinois Department of Transportation wants to spend about $45 million to expand a 6-mile stretch of the road to five lanes because of increased traffic in the area. The road runs through parts of Glen Ellyn, Lombard and Downers Grove.

NIFTI has been building support for its effort recently in rallies and at civic meetings in other communities along the route, but the Lombard Village Board's decision Thursday night to endorse a proposal for a four-lane road is a setback.

Joe Clark, a leader of NIFTI, called the decision disappointing. But he noted that former Lombard boards had approved a plan for a five-lane road, and he urged citizens to make their feelings known.

IDOT plans to hold meetings in July for area residents.

Several residents who live along a four-lane stretch of Illinois 53 through Lombard testified at the Village Board meeting that the roadway is perilous.

They talked of being afraid of turning their vehicles into and out of their driveways, of checking their mailboxes and of having their children play in their front yards because of the traffic whizzing by on Illinois 53.